Ahead of the Curve: AI Governance as a Competitive Edge

Challenge

A US-based e-commerce platform with extensive personal data handling for marketing, customer service, financial transactions, and order fulfillment, wanted to leverage AI to create an advantage. The Company was keenly aware of the shifting regulatory landscape, having read the Executive Order on AI and actively following the progress of the EU AI Act and the Colorado AI Act.

In a market where data security and customer trust are critical, the company aimed to proactively establish a sophisticated AI Governance framework to set itself apart from competitors and reinforce customer confidence.

Solution

DPS Privacy’s consulting team are all certified AI Governance Architects and were tapped to develop and implement a comprehensive AI Governance program that would manage risk but not interfere with innovation.

AI Governance & Ethics Review Committee:
- Drafted AI Governance Committee charter and framework
- Identified members for a multidisciplinary committee to oversee AI risk assessment of all proposed and in-flight deployments to verify projects meet ethical and legal standards.
- Increased and defined oversight and to achieve alignment of AI initiatives with corporate values, regulatory requirements, and company risk profile.
AI Governance Program Documentation:
- AI Inventory: Began mapping the AI dataflows to identify the personal and company data used and the systems and vendors involved.
- AI Risk & AI Vendor Risk Assessment: created assessment templates, applied risk scoring, and built approvals workflows to expedite AI Governance Committee review.
AI Policy Development: Collaborated with key stakeholders to draft:
- AI Ethics Policy that addresses fairness, transparency, accountability, and privacy.
- AI Acceptable Data Use Policy to govern the data used in training, testing, and operating AI systems.
- Updates to Incident Response and Privacy policies, and Website Privacy Notice.
Stakeholder Engagement & Training Programs:
- Implemented comprehensive training modules across the organization to raise awareness and competence in ethical AI use.
- Crafted Committee-specific training to provide members with the knowledge to implement and advocate for ethical AI practices effectively.

Results

Our expertise in bridging technology and compliance coupled with a commitment to learning and certification, enabled the DPS Privacy Consulting Team to create an AI Governance framework for the Company that is functional in evaluating and managing AI risk, but also promotes experimentation and novel solutions.

As part of the Company's goal of differentiating itself and getting ahead of both the competition and the regulations, it has ingrained a culture of ethical AI responsibility throughout the organization.